The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-06-25
be advanced, even by those who desire to
sea the business advantage reaped by
TARIFF REFORM.


everything 1t touches. Were 1t possible to
tax agriculture as 1t does manufactures,
did our wheat, and corn, and pork, and to-
bacco, and cotton seed, and provisions bear
In their cost an accum ulated taxation, our
farmers, like cur manufacturers, would be
confined almost exclusively to our home
markets. The tariff taxation upon his
tools and machinery and implements of
husbandry, however, Is so small compared
with his product, that the farmer Is ena-
bled to export and compete with the most
pauperized of foreign labor In the open
market. "Pauper labor" Is pauper becsuse
II Is profitless-is non productive. Prod.
uct is the law of wages Wherever the
laporer produces large product, there he
receives large pay. The product of his
days labor, sold in the open market after
deducting expenses and profits to the EN-,
ployer, is his wages, The competition of
capital keeps profits within reasonable
bounds; and, did no arbitrary law inter
pose labor would take the remainder
All accumulation is the joint product of
capital and laEorer, and this annual prod
uct determines annual wages. II capital
gets more than Its just proportion, labor
must get less, for there Is no other fund
out of which it can be paid. Its pay de-
ponds upon It's product when no tariff laws
inter pose to rob It. In these pauper labor
countries capital is VIGOROUSLY cheap, and
interest low If labor was productive,
capital would be in demand for its en-
ployment. In the early days of California
in placer mining labor received $25 per
day, and interest was from 100 to 500 per
cent Wherever labor is profitable capital
is in demand for its employment and in.
terest is high. Wherever there is pauper
labor, capital is at from two to three per
cent In view of the fact that product is
the law of wages, how whimsical and sense
less is the theory that municipalities
non productive-labor can invade and de-
grade we'll paid labor. If either needs
protection against the other 1t is the pau
per, who needs it as against the man.
And indeed, where among the nations
is not the pauper laborer protected "
against the higher wage receiving Iaborer ?
The highly protected American labOrer is
made to believe that protection alone pre-.
vents him being degraded to the level OF
the German pauper. The still higher pro
tected German pauper is led to believe
that it is the protection alone, accorded
by the Empire against the high-priced
American laborer, that enables him to get
any wages at all Which is right Meth.
or; both are deceived. But then, both
being voters, they must first be deceived
before they can be robbed. Here, there,
everywhere, protection has hut single
purpose: the robbery of labor. 1t was at
first demanded, under the fraudulent pre-
tense that American labor was so high that
it could not be profitably employed In
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, not to increase
: the wages of labor, but because wages
we're then too high already. That Is, pro.
lection was then demanded to overcome
, the effect and advantage of high wages to
the laborer, to, In some manner, counter
q act and neutralize the advantage of high
a wages; and 1t most thoroughly accom-
a plished Its purpose, 1t reduced the wages
y of the laborer. 1t diminished the pur
chasing power of what he did receive. II
thus bit from both ends of his plug of to
bacco before he was permitted even to
handle 1t for himself, as we shall see.
Now think every man who has giver
= the subject any examination must admi
that 1t is the labor cost of foreign produc
" ton, and not the rate of foreign wages
y. with which we are concerned, and that L
4 any protection is needed, 1t is to compen
safe for the difference in labor cost of pro
:, duction, instead of the difference In thu
, scale of wages. What, then, should be TIT
rate of tariff taxation that will compensate
> for the difference in the labor cost of pre-
. duction? What should it be upon iron, TO
4 instances
The first annual report Of the Commits
"a sioner of Labor, for 1886, gives the labo
a cost of Ton of Bessemer pig. iron In Penn
If sylvania Fat 1928, which is but 7e9 pc
n cent of the entire cost of the Besseme
N iron Other states produce iron for les
IS cost than Pennsylvania, but make tn
" comparison with that state because, bein
"a situated upon the coast, she first feels tn
"a effect of foreign competition. In 'paupe
ar labor Germany the same authority give
re- the labor cost Of pig iron at $3.50 per tor
10 which is 10 as per cent. OF Its cost. Ho'
O. does the Pennsylvania laborer need tart
II against the pauper labor of Germany
=, and | will leave Mr.. Trimble to name
y duty that would be compensation for tn
-. difference In the labor cost of pig iroI
~ With the improved methods of manufa
~ ture, the labor cost of ton of Besseme
- steel rails from the pig is less than "a 30
labor cost less than the cost OF similt
~ production in England or upon the cont